Research: 
You will work on a PhD project under the supervision of Prof. dr. Marius T.H. Meeus (promotor), dr. Ashley Metz, and dr. Nikolas Rathert (co-promotors). Empirically, your PhD research will focus on product recall in the medical device industry. This team is currently involved in research on this topic and highly knowledgeable about relevant theories and research methods. They regularly publish with international scholars and have experience with publishing in top organization and management journals.

Product recall means that companies (have to) issue a public announcement that owners/users of a specific product have to send back their devices for repair of the product deficiency. Recalls involve many processes, decisions and consequences for diverse actors from medical device manufacturers to physicians, patients, insurers and regulators.  Product recall is thus a rich setting that allows us to investigate various phenomena about how organizations deal with demands from various stakeholders, learn from failure, and the role of understudied actors, such as insurers, in this process. Overall, such recalls are an important window into the (highly technical) future of healthcare characterized by complexity in treatment devices on the manufacturer side, as well as in the analysis of risk involved by manufacturers, insurers, and regulators. Theoretically, the study of product recall offers an opportunity to potentially integrate neo-institutional theory, learning theory, and the behavioral theory of the firm.

Methodologically, this project allows for a mixed-methods approach, drawing on large, publicly available product recall data that allow for quantitative analyses while also addressing open questions that require qualitative research in organizations. All supervisors in this project are currently involved in research in the aforementioned topic, theories, and research methods. They regularly publish with international scholars and have experience with publishing in top organization and management journals. 

In consultation with the supervising team, you will have the opportunity to contribute directly to the scope of this research project based on your specific research interests, skills, and career aspirations.

Teaching: 
Your teaching responsibilities include giving tutorials/lectures and assisting lecturer teams in courses featured in the bachelor’s degree programs offered by the Department of Organization Studies (e.g., Introduction to Organization Studies). You will also be invited to supervise Bachelor students in writing their theses. You will have the opportunity to obtain your university teaching qualification. 

• A (Research) Master’s degree in Organization Studies, Business/Management, or a related field.
• Academic excellence, as demonstrated by your grade transcripts and CV.
• Good research skills evidenced by good grades for research methods. Ideally, experience with qualitative and quantitative methods and relevant analytical software (e.g., R, SPSS/STATA, Atlas.ti).
• The ability to develop the above topic into a research proposal.
• English language skills to teach and write in English; Dutch language skills are appreciated, but not required.
• Enthusiastic, independent, and strongly motivated.
• Team spirit.
• Willingness to work in a multidisciplinary social science environment.
• Strong interest in pursuing an academic career.

Fixed-term contract: 6 years.

• We offer a full-time position with a 6-year fixed-term contract.
• The full-time salary for the position ranges between € 2.836 and € 4.474 gross per month (salary scale 10) based on a 38-hour working week.
• A holiday allowance of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3% (annually).
• Researchers from outside the Netherlands may qualify for a tax-free allowance equal to 30% of their taxable salary (the 30% tax regulation, which lasts for five years). The University will apply for such an allowance on their behalf.
• Assistance in finding accommodation (for foreign employees).

The collective labor agreement of the Dutch Universities applies.

Tilburg University

Tilburg University is one of Europe’s leading universities in Social and Behavioral Sciences. According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021, Tilburg University is #37 worldwide, #10 in Europe, and #1 in the Netherlands in the subject of Business & Economics. Tilburg is located in the Southern part of the Netherlands, at a 1h to 1.5h traveling distance from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Utrecht, close to Europe’s foremost high-tech regions (Brabant South-East) and equidistant from Brussels (Belgium) and the Aachen/Cologne area (Germany).

Department of Organization Studies

The members of the Department of Organization Studies examine the adaptiveness of organizations from a relational perspective. Our research focuses on the interaction of organizations with their institutional environment and with other organization within networks, and within and between organizations and organizational teams. The department has a very strong research orientation with a focus on high-quality publications in leading journals in the fields of organization and management (e.g., Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Leadership Quarterly, Research Policy, Technovation, and Journal of Management). The department’s research program is part of TSB’s Herbert Simon Research Institute (HSRI) and its cross-cutting and multidisciplinary research theme ‘Adaptive Societies, Organizations, and Workers’.

Members of the Department of Organization Studies supervise Bachelor and Master students and teach a variety of degree courses at both levels in the Organization Studies programs and in the Global Management of Social Issues programs. All programs and tracks (except for one of the bachelor programs) are taught in English. Non-Dutch-speaking candidates will be asked to teach in English only. The working language of the Department, School and University is English. Further information about the department is available at:

https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/about/schools/socialsciences/organization/departments/organization-studies